The Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (
Last Friday the Hualien District Court ordered the foundation's founder to pay NT$1,010,000 to Dr. Chuang Ju-kuei (
The case stems from a story Master Cheng Yen (
According to testimony given to the court, Cheng Yen was upset by seeing a pool of blood on the ground.
She was told the blood was from an Aboriginal woman named Chen Chiou-en (
Since the couple did not have the money, the group turned around for home, but Chen died on the way.
Because of the pool of blood, Cheng Yen made a promise to build a hospital that would never reject any patient and eventually she established the Tzu Chi hospitals and the Tzu Chi foundation.
Cheng Yen has told this story many times over the years, but without giving a name for either the clinic or the doctor.
Controversy arose two years ago when Lee Man-mei (
Chuang Ju-kuei, 85, has been in ill health for several years, but his family decided to sue both Cheng Yen and Lee for defamation on his behalf.
In February, the Hualien District Court found both women not guilty of the criminal charge of defamation. The Chuang family appealed the verdict to the Hualien High Court but their appeal was rejected.
Last Friday, however, Cheng Yen lost a civil lawsuit filed by the family.
The court said that when Lee told Cheng Yen the story, Lee said "the Aboriginals went off because they did not have NT$8,000," but when Cheng Yen retold the story to the public, she said, "the Aboriginals were refused treatment because they could not pay the NT$8,000 deposit."
The court ruled that Cheng Yen's version of the story had damaged Chuang's reputation.
The Tzu Chi foundation said it would appeal the ruling because the key to the case was whether the doctor had refused treatment, not the word "deposit."
"We are not trying to embarrass the Chuang family, but the judge has acknowledged "a pool of blood" as a fact. The point should be whether the doctor refused to treat the patient, not whether the word "deposit" was used or not," said foundation spokesman Ho Jih-sheng (
"Chuang's action was a violation of the Medical Affairs Law (醫事法). How could one who broke the law ask for compensation from others?" said Nieh Chi-huan (聶齊桓), the foundation's attorney.
"In addition, Lee, who mentioned Chuang's name, won her civil case but Cheng Yen, who never mentioned Chuang's name, lost. What does the use of the word "deposit" have to do with defamation?" Nieh said.
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